John Avlon: The Birthers Began on the Left

The Birthers were back in force at the National Tea Party Convention in Nashville.

The high-profile resurgence of the Birther claims on cable television provoked much self-satisfaction from liberals as the latest evidence of the influence of wingnuts on conservative politics.

But there’s an inconvenient truth liberals are going to have to confront: The Birthers began not on the right, but on the left.

Investigations for my new book, Wingnuts, revealed that the Birther conspiracy theory was first concocted by renegade members of the original Obama haters, Party Unity My Ass, known more commonly by their acronym, the PUMAs. They were a splinter group of hard-core Hillary Clinton supporters who did not want to give up the ghost after the bitter 50-state Bataan Death March to the 2008 Democratic nomination.

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12 Commentson "John Avlon: The Birthers Began on the Left"

The GOP started the Tea baggers but you do not see Dems blindly following their claims like the GOP.

To the Birthers, prove it, Oh that’s right you can’t, just more of your unsubstantiated rumors you keep writing on your hands to help you keep up. You are just another Palin, just like “W”, just like Quayle, just like Reagan. I love you guys. Keep plucking that chicken.

wasn't the native born requirement just to keep foreigners from infultrating our government anyway? i mean dang we have american ceo's and politicians inflitrating our government daily and those birthers aren't saying crap about that!

First, this PUMA organization is obviously a front for racist beliefs. I've met plenty lefties who are racists, anti semitic, etc so this so called 'inconvenience' the liberals will have to face up to I personally could care less about. I am not a believer in the birthers' ridiculous claims and don't feel like I need to take responsibility for them even if your claims are true that it originated on the left. It's a non issue. Secondly, who gives a rat's ass? The tea baggers are now and forever onwards to be linked to extremists on the right as well as the GOP in general and are a side show for the media to feed on while the lame ass mother f-ckers in the Republican Party figure out what issues and ideas will have traction with the American people again. It's subterfuge to hide the fact that Republicans HAVE NO IDEAS AT ALL!! They are still in the wilderness and show no signs of finding their way out. The Tea Party a–holes are their saving grace while they figure it out. And how wonderfully exciting it will be when they do….not.

Great observation, this article was written by a guy who for worked for Rudy Giuliani, but claims to be an “independent” with a capital “I” – nonetheless, I expect his definitions of “Left” and “Right” to be vastly different than what most disinfo.com visitors have in mind.

Reason I posted this is because he's spent the past year “observing” what he describes as “Wingnuts”: and he includes the “Far Left” and “Far Right” in that definition. (And of course he turned it into a book.)

What I am doing (for myself and others please comment…) is figuring out if by examining the extremes of American politics, if you can actually determine a “center” and therefore define “Left” and “Right”.

At least Hillary's supporters cared about the issue when it actually might have made a difference. The point at which you could question Obama's legitimacy as a candidate for President is long since past.